Bharti Airtel to invest Rs 60,000 crore on network expansion in 3 years

It said that as part of Project leap, 70,000 base stations in current fiscal will be put, while more than 1,60,000 base stations will be put over 3 years.ET Bureau | Updated: November 30, 2015, 17:41 IST

NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel announced an investment of Rs 60,000 crore over the next three years as part of 'Project Leap'.

The company will make investments in upgradation and sophistication of the company's pan India network as part of Project Leap.

"Project Leap is a 10-point programme which will transform Airtel's network, " Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO of India and South Asia said.

Under the ten point programme, the company will double its base stations from 1.60 lakh currently over the next three years.

Massive modernisation of networks, upgradation of copper line, swapping out legacy networks, massive reduction in carbon footprint by 70% and enabling customers to understand the project are some of the ten initiatives under project leap.

Vittal said the company would fund most of its investments through cash accruals

" Most of this investment will exclude payment for spectrum," Vittal said clarifying that the total sum was mostly for capex and airwaves.

The investment will enable Airtel customers to avail broadband speeds of 50 Mbps from the current 16 Mbps, by 2016. In addition Airtel plans to offer speeds of up to 100 Mbps through its fibre to home network.

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